The casket of Calgary journalist Michelle Lang is seen ahead of a ramp ceremony at Kandahar Airfield on Friday, Jan. 1 for her and four Canadian soldiers killed by an improvised explosive device. Lang was the first Canadian journalist killed while covering Canada's Afghan mission.Colin Perkel
Burly, battle-hardened Canadian soldiers kneeled before a row of caskets and wept openly Friday while others among them sat pensively, their faces turned with grief in the wake of an inexplicable tragedy that marred the start of another new year.
They wiped their eyes or clapped one another on the back in forlorn support as they peered at photographs perched on each of the five caskets, each one bearing the remains of four soldiers and a journalist.
The outpouring of hushed sorrow came just before thousands of members of the NATO-led military coalition attended a stiff-saluting ramp ceremony on the Kandahar Airfield tarmac, the traditional honouring of the fallen before their final journey home.
The bright winter sunshine still seemed cold as the mournful strains of a lone piper cut through the air and the remains of the five were carried slowly, deliberately, to a transport plane for the long flight back to Canada.
The casket of Calgary journalist Michelle Lang, 34, led the procession, followed by those of the soldiers - Sgt. George Miok, 28, Sgt. Kirk Taylor, 28, Cpl. Zachery McCormack, 21, and Pte. Garrett Chidley, 21.
"Wednesday, 30 December, 2009 was a dark day for Canada," Padre Sandy Scott told the many who were on hand to pay their respects.
"But the light that brings life to the world will never allow the powers of darkness to overcome the light of Canadians like these."
The bright red of the five Canadian flags draped over each steel casket offered a splash of colour to the airfield's otherwise drab shades of olive and taupe.
The five died Wednesday when the armoured vehicle they were in struck a massive improvised explosive device on the outskirts of Kandahar city during what was supposed to be a routine patrol in a purportedly safe area of the city.
The enormous blast ripped through the steel-plated vehicle, tossing it aside and leaving a massive crater in the dusty road, a thoroughfare that's often heavily travelled by Canadian troops.
The deaths bring to 138 the number of Canadian soldiers killed as part of the Afghan mission since it began in 2002. Ms. Lang was the second Canadian civilian to die - diplomat Glyn Berry, 60, was killed five years ago, the victim of a suicide bomber.
Wednesday's loss of life was the third worst single incident for the eight-year Canadian mission in Afghanistan and the worst in two-and-a-half years. In the spring and summer of 2007, two IED blasts just three months apart each claimed the lives of six Canadian troops.
Wednesday's tragedy, in which several soldiers and another civilian were injured, also capped a bloody 2009 in which 32 Canadian soldiers lost their lives to the Afghan mission.
As jets took off or landed on the nearby runway, Rev. Scott touched on the lives of each of the five.
Sgt. Miok, from Edmonton and a member of the 41 Combat Engineer Regiment, was known as someone always available to his troops.
"Even in the darkest places that visit us during a mission like this," Scott said, "George would shine [the]light of ingenuity, flexibility and another hopeful plan."
Cpl. McCormack, also of Edmonton, was called a caring, "outstanding soldier" who was a member of the Loyal Edmonton Regiment.
"His tenacity made him a bigger man than his physical stature," Rev. Scott said.
Taylor, of Yarmouth, N.S., described as a man with a "calm demeanour," served with 84 Independent Field Battery.
Pte. Chidley, of Cambridge, Ont., attached to the 2nd Battalion of the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry, was someone who boosted troop morale with his jokes, his colleagues said.
Known as Chiddels, the private "wanted to help make a difference for the people of Afghanistan," Scott told the hushed ceremony.
Canada's armed forces, the padre went on, would never let the light that gives power to "our country's character be defeated by sinister or treacherous acts."
Ms. Lang, a National Newspaper Award winner, was the first Canadian journalist to die covering the war and her death sparked an outpouring of sympathy - including from the soldiers in Kandahar.
She had been in the country little more than two weeks of what was to have been a six-week stint.
At the epitaph outside Canada's KAF headquarters, a memorial already heavy with marble plaques etched with the names and images of slain Canadian soldiers, Ms. Lang's casket stood flanked by those of the men she died alongside.
Next to her photograph, a black scarf, notepad and pencil sat atop the black cushion that would normally carry the posthumous Sacrifice Medal, which is awarded to soldiers.
Rev. Scott referred to Ms. Lang as a "rising star" in Canada's print media, someone who was committed to getting "the whole truth" and "telling stories of hope, not just pain."
Her casket was carried by five Canadian soldiers and an American colleague, along with two members of Canada's diplomatic service.
"That was so hard," said one of the civilians afterward.